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Trying to make natural sense out of spiritual things serves as a hindrance for many of us when it comes to our spiritual growth and understanding how God works.

What I’m about to explain is something that a lot of us probably never really learned or were able to grasp when we were growing up in church as kids and teens.

I also think that when it comes to speaking about things of the spiritual nature and the spiritual realm that exists outside of our physical one, people tend to get scared.

BUT, let me tell you this: this is one of those things where not being aware of it or ignoring it doesn’t make it go away and since it’s something that affects your life daily and definitely affects your communication with God, you should probably be aware.

You can’t stop it, you can’t change it. The spiritual realm exists and we as human beings, are like Gold medals in the Spiritual Olympics between two teams: Good and Evil.

So, as Christians, I think it’s crucial that we know where we fit into all of this and how our relationship with Jesus is the key to being gold medals to the winning team!

Did you know there was a difference between your Spirit and your Soul?

We, as humans are comprised of three parts: Spirit, Soul, and Body. (The world will tell you different by telling you that we consist of “mind, body, and soul” or that spirit and soul are one in the same, but God’s word says otherwise.)

Your spirit is what gives life to the body. Without the spirit, the body is dead.

Your soul is your personality, aka, your mind, will, and emotions.

Your body, of course, is your physical shell.

When we are born, we are born with the human spirit of life. We are NOT born with God’s spirit.

However, when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you are then gifted with God’s Spirit,aka, The Holy Spirit.

And no, the Holy Spirit is NOT something you only receive when you’re in church and you have a reaction to the music that causes you to jump up and down, take off running down the aisle, turn a cartwheel, whatever.

I’ve had that same reaction at a Beyoncé concert and I can guarantee you there’s nothing “holy” about bopping to Drunk In Love.

NOW, In scripture, there is actually a distinction made between man’s spirit and God’s Spirit.

God’s Spirit is always capitalized when written about and man’s spirit is always written about in lower case.

Romans 8:16 states: The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God (see the distinction made between THE Spirit and OUR spirit?)

SO, what it means to receive the Holy Spirit is that a spiritual transaction ACTUALLY occurs upon your acceptance of Jesus.

This isn’t something you can physically make happen. It is a spiritual thing.

When you make that decision to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, God implants the Holy Spirit inside of you in seed form.

This is what it means to be “born again”. Your spirit, which was only human, is born again and intermingled with the Holy Spirit.

Now, just like any other seed, the seed of the Holy Spirit has to be fed and watered in order to grow.

The food and water for this seed is the wisdom and knowledge of God, which is the word of God, only to be found in the Holy Bible.

Now, as you take in this food and water, this nourishes and grows your spirit and you grow stronger in the wisdom and knowledge of God.

BUT, here’s where the hard part comes in and where the struggle happens with us as a whole:

God’s intention for us through our relationship with Jesus Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit is for us to operate in this order:

To receive wisdom and instruction from the Holy Spirit

Which then dictates God’s truth to the soul (our mind, will, and emotions)

Which then dictates to the body how we are to physically respond to a matter.

BUT, unfortunately, we do it the other way around because our human spirit is now in conflict with the Holy Spirit and why is this? Because we have allowed our SOULS (mind will and emotions) to determine what’s right and wrong for so long.

How have we done this, you wonder? Well, it’s complicated but yet, oh so simple.

Our souls (our mind, will, and emotions) have led the way for so long and determined what is right and wrong according to the information of the world.

Our souls have accepted what the world tells us as truth and allowed the world’s truth to dictate how we live our lives and so forth.

So we haven’t been operating out of spirit. We’ve been operating out of man’s limited knowledge our own will and our own emotions.

Once you’ve been saved and you start to read the word of God, your new God-infused SPIRIT recognizes the word as truth, but if your SOUL is still taking the lead and determining what is true and false according to the world, then you’re going to constantly find conflict within yourself because you’re operating out of confusion.

This is because what the world dictates as truth and what the scripture dictates as truth are total opposites.

This is why Romans 12:2 says:And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

This is where we have to get on one accord and decide whether or not we’re going to live out of our flesh or out of our Spirit.

And if we choose to live out of our Spirit, then the only way to overcome this is to surrender our souls (again, our mind, will and emotions) to our Spirit.

Because when you surrender your soul (your mind, will and emotions) to the Holy Spirit and allow it to dictate what is true to you, only then, can you truly be transformed.

Jesus speaks on this in Matthew 16: 24 when he says:

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

He’s basically saying that by denying your “self” (aka ego, which stems from your mind, will and emotions) and living by the Holy Spirit instead, only then will you receive eternal life.

NOW, knowing this,

This explains why there can be so many Christians who claim to love and follow Jesus, but their actions don’t reflect that.

It’s because they are still operating out of instruction of the world, versus submitting their souls to their new (BORN AGAIN) Spirit, and allowing the Spirit to lead them.

Too many times due to a lack of understanding, Christians do it the other way around: We become believers but we still operate from the outside in.

This is because we’re not growing that seed of the Holy Spirit through taking in the word of God.

I know this to be true because I did it myself. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and savior but I was still sinning it up!

But I didn’t do this on purpose. At the time, I didn’t understand the spiritual nature of the whole process and I wasn’t allowing myself to be transformed because I definitely wasn’t taking in the word of God.

I believed in the spiritual but I’ve always seen it as something that occurs invisibly around me only. I never knew that one of the gifts of accepting Jesus was receiving God’s Spirit.

So, I was believing in Jesus but I was attempting to manually control my sin by just saying, “oh okay, I know that’s wrong. I won’t do it anymore”.

Not yet realizing that if we were physically strong enough to resist temptation on our own, there would be no need for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does a work in us that eradicates sin from our hearts. But when we try to do it on our own, we’re only removing that sin from our mind and trying to manage it without any true change of heart.

And again, I know THIS to be true because it happened to me. Over time, when I did fully surrender to the Holy Spirit, the desires of my heart began to change and it became much easier for me to say NO to the things I previously wasn’t strong enough to say no to in my own will.

When you do allow the Holy Spirit to take over, THIS is how you get Christians who truly DO change and it’s noticeable in the way they live their lives. You can tell it’s not a front and that they’re not trying to manage their actions and behavior.

This is what Jesus meant in Matthew 7:15-16 when He said:

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits.

Their “fruits” pertain to their output, or their actions and their behavior.

A lot of people don’t recognize this because they don’t recognize or acknowledge things of the Spirit.

And this is DANGEROUS! While you’re operating from the perspective of there being nothing influencing your life that is outside of your physical existence, demons in the spiritual realm are laughing at you and having a field day manipulating your circumstances.

BUT, that’s another topic for another post where I plan to talk about how the spiritual realm is the true source for MOST of our earthly, physical problems and how we can combat that.

THIS IS WHY it is CRUCIAL to have a personal relationship with God, OUTSIDE OF CHURCH, as well as inside.

Because I cannot stress to you enough how growing in God is a SPIRITUAL OCCURRENCE.

It’s not about just opening up a book, reading something and doing what it says.

It is about receiving the Holy Spirit and growing it through God’s truth.

ONLY THEN, can you recognize and understand the spiritual things of God and only THEN can you begin to have an impact on your physical circumstances.

One more thing I want to point out when it comes to the spiritual.

Science and Spirituality are NOT in competition with each other.

Science is amazing at explaining how things work in our physical realm but it CANNOT explain the spiritual.

Science breaks down the facts of how things work in the physical.

But you can have all of these facts and still have no truth.

1 Cor 2: 11– For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

Translation: Just as no one can tell you what’s on your mind because they can’t access your spirit, no one can know the mind of God without His Spirit.

But think about how AMAZING it is that He grants us access to His mind through the acceptance of Jesus Christ!Talk about a blessing!

I’ve included a couple more verses that refer to the spirit of man and the Spirit of God below.I hope this has been helpful and I hope you’ve taken away the most important message that I’ve tried to convey here: A relationship with God through Jesus Christ is not about religion. Religion is actually the opposite. As a matter of fact, knowing the truth of God is more freeing than anything this world could possibly offer.

Through His word, God lets us know that there’s a whole lot of deception going on around us daily that has been happening since the beginning of our creation. Trusting in Him not only reveals but saves ❤

A couple of additional scripture verses:

1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

John 4:24 God is a Spirit; and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

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About Me

Hi, I'm Stephanie. Welcome! I'm a Writer, Trained Actor, self-proclaimed funny person and a Disciple of Christ. I started this blog because sometimes the world has the tendency to make us feel like we're all taking crazy pills and I want to be a light in a dark place. I also started this blog for people like me, who grew up in the church, believing what we've been taught to believe but found ourselves not satisfied with believing in Jesus mainly "because mama and granny said so" and needed more. For those people, I've done and continue to do a whole lot of seeking and, well, here it is. While I take my salvation seriously, myself, I do not take seriously. I hope that through visiting my blog, you will think, laugh, and be inspired to hone in on the purpose God has for your life and the amazing human being He created you to be, no matter how much the world tries to convince you otherwise. I also pray that you discover a deeper love for Christ, God through Christ and a desire to do more seeking of your own. Xo